-3 Days later in Konoha-

Inside the Hyuga complex, Hinata approaches her father Hiashi, the current head of the Hyuga clan.

"Father"

"*Sigh*, Hinata, if your request is still the same, the answer is still no."

“But we have to-”

“Enough. Don’t bring more embarrassment to the Hyuga name. You failed a simple C-rank mission, abandoned your teammate to save your own life, and now want us to risk our seasoned Jonin to look for his body.”

Hinata struggles with herself but keeps facing her father.

“He is still alive, I’m sure of it.”

“He is dead Hinata, face reality. 

This is what being weak means in this world. It means lacking the means to defend your friends, your village, your clan and your family.”

Tears start streaming from Hinata's eyes, her heart guilt-ridden as she clings on to hope.

“I know that but is still out there, he has to be.”

“I’m leaving it to the Hokage to decide whether to send a team or not to look for… a single Genin. If you want to be of any help go back to your room and train harder.”

“...Yes, father

Inside the Hokage’s residence, Anko walks in to face Hiruzen Sarutobi, the third Hokage.

“The situation is highly unusual…”

“Yes Hokage-sama, I’m afraid from the moment the enemy sensed our presence, this was already the best possible outcome”

“I've read the report but I want to hear it from you as well. Tell me about them, you have them graded as S-rank…”

“Yes, looking into our intel, it matches what we described, the enemies were Kakuzu and Hidan, both S-rank missing-nin known for being employed on assassination missing as mercenaries.”

“What luck… why would such enemies wonder inside our borders.”

“Likely they were on a similar mission as us. Looking for the merchant but it seems both our parties were late. Orochimaru got to him before either of us.”

“Orochimaru… yet another S-rank.”

“This might be our chance to find some lead on his whereabouts.”

“Anko… how are the girls?”

Anko bites her lip.

“Hinata has been pestering her clan to send a search party with no result. Sakura has locked herself in her room refusing to come out…”

“You need to think about them first…

As for Yami… there is value in finding him, dead or alive.

“I’m sending a team, but only to find and recover him.”

“Please… Let me be a part of it, Hokage-sama"

“Go Anko... bring Yami home.”

“Thank you Hokage-sama.”

“I’ll let you know as soon as the team is ready.

Take care of yourself Anko, your face looks weary...”

That night, Rather than resting, a ninja in a spiky ponytail poured over all the intel she could access about S-rank missing-nin, trying to find anything that could connect her to the word Yami had unintentionally let out as a whisper, 'Akatsuki'.

She kept much of the information Yami gave about the enemies a secret as she could not explain its origin in her report.

This was now the third time Yami had spoken of things he shouldn’t know as just a Genin.

First, he spoke of information that only higher-ups in the village knew about. 

Then he shared information that even the village’s intelligence network hadn’t picked up on yet.

And now this time he provided extremely detailed information on an unknown enemy’s jutsu and combat style.

“Damn you Yami, just how many more secrets are you hiding. You better fucking make it out alive or I’m going to kill you myself.”

The next morning Anko left with a search team, heading back towards the site that had kept her up at night.

As for the girls...

Sakura stayed locked in her room. Naruto tried to visit her when he heard the news but wasn’t allowed inside. Only Hinata and Ino were allowed to visit her.

Sakura stayed sitting, hugging her knees and talking to herself for hours at a time.

Hinata stayed inside her clan compound except for when she visited Sakura. 

She’d train herself to exhaustion then cry herself to sleep, she’d repeat this cycle multiple times each day.

As for Ino, she heard of what happened a day later. She visited Sakura several times to cry together but couldn’t find it in herself to blame Sakura or Hinata for what happened.

Instead, she blamed herself for not even being on the same team to help him. 

Her mind wandered in scenarios where she could have possessed Hidan and if not ensure his defeat, at least allow Yami to have fled the danger.